Thanks for the feedback, Helen and Paul. IBO just seems a bit steep
when compared to FIBplus at half the price... this is where I need
some unbiased advice comparing the two. Is FIBplus considered IBO's
poor cousin? Does it offer only half the useability of IBO? Does
anyone have any gripes against either? I don't mean to devalue
either product, nor do I wish to start a 'mine is better than yours'
debate. I'm just trying to be a smart shopper. I'm also curious
about why the big price difference in what seems to be two very
similar products, both offering a solid history and comprehensive
features.

If the consensus is that IBO is the only way to go, I will indeed
shell out my $740 AUD tax deduction and consider it well spent. I
must admit, I do like to walk away with a 'steal', which is why I'm
eyeing off FIBplus. So if it's fair to say that FIB+ and IBO both
get the job done and both have their pros and cons, then I'd probably
go for FIB+ I suppose... Heck, if if it wasn't for dialect 3 I might
just stick with the original FreeIB stuff which still works great.

Also, I have yet to discover how to create a TIME field from a
TIMESTAMP in dialect 1, e.g. a computed field that shows TIME part of
another TIMESTAMP field. Can it be done with CASTing? Is it done
via UDF? How have people been dealing with time fields prior to
dialect 3? With CHAR fields and manually chunking out substrings?
Judging from the earlier lack of response to this question, either
I'm missing the obvious solution or the solution is too complex to
bother with??? Let me guess: just use dialect 3...

Thanks,
Andrew Ferguson

> > >Second, I'm at the point where I need to settle on an IB

development

> > >environment. FB for server, of course, but what about Delphi +

IB

> > >components... your thoughts from experience and expectations

much

> > >appreciated...
> > >
> > >
> > >(2) D3-6 + IBObjects? This is my dream setup, but unfortunately
> > >$800AUD is pretty steep;
> >
> > Actually, at current exchange rates it's $AUD746. At current Aus
> > programmer rates that's about 8 hours of your time. It will save

you

> > hundreds of times those eight hours...and you might even get to
> > collect your holiday pay and take an actual holiday...<g>
> >
>
> I can see where he is coming from, sometimes an amount like
> $746 (whether AUD or CAD) might as well be $746,000,000 if the
> revenue stream is coming in the future and that future revenue is
> being spent now. However the trustware licence does give you
> some wiggle room, so perhaps IBO is still the best solution.
>
> I would say if your using Delphi, then IBO is definitely the route

to

> go, I can't say about C++ Builder as I do not use it. For non-
> Borland tools, in a C++ environment, I would give IBPP a serious
> look (I use it for commercial development).
>
> Paul
> Paul Schmidt
> Tricat Technologies
> paul@t...
> www.tricattechnologies.com